Another day at a coffee shop...

Yesterday I was in town meeting a young leader that I disciple. At the store I found a man holding his fingers and in obvious pain. He mainly spoke Kirundi, so I invited him to sit down and tell us what happened. He had just slammed his fingers in a car door. Ouch! (been there myself). We told him that our God heals those in pain and asked if we could pray. He agreed. We prayed. He was healed! Completely able to bend his finger and all the pain was gone. I watched the blood wash back into his finger nails too. So then we were able to share the Gospel with him and tell him that God is personal and cared enough about him to plant us there just as his accident happened. He said he had never considered a relationship with God before, but wanted to know more... so he is coming to my church on Sunday. His name is Jimmy, so please be praying that God touches his heart (after he hears me preach on fasting?!) and wants to know Jesus personally.

Refreshing

I sometimes find it refreshing to discover there are places in the world where American culture has failed to infiltrate society. I am certainly in one of them. Any movie reverence... completely missed. Any movie reference. Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Cinderella, the classics, all of them... not a part of the culture at all. The Oscars? People get a gold statue of a little man who ends up becoming a door stopper years later? Why?

Franchises too. The only one is Coke. Not a single brand name... and the ones I do stumble across have lost their meaning. I'll drive down the street and see any number of second-hand name brands or t-shirts that have significance in America but are just something to cover your back here. For example... the cool looking young man with a Curves light pink t-shirt. He has no idea it's a womens' exercise club... and if he did, it wouldn't matter. Or the off chance I come across an Ambercrombie and Fitch shirt... again, no meaning.

I love the shirts. They really crack me up. Like one extremely built friend who rarely cracks a smile and looks like Mr. T. He only wears black shirts, but some have writing on them. One is the USA Army slogan: "Lead, Follow, or get out of the way." With him wearing it, I believe it. Another says "Some Like It Hot" but my favorite has hot pink writing and says Bridesmaid. Of course I'll never mention what it means.

While it would be nice to be understood when making a cultural reference every now and then... I'm thankful this country has remained hidden from many of our Western influences.